politics

So everyone (read: left wing wackadoodles and Communist China lackeys) are having fits because Trump spoke with Taiwan’s President.

You know what I think? Good. About time an American President stopped molly coddling China. They want to play with the big boys then they better learn to deal with the consequences. Besides where were these whiners when the Obama administration authorized billions in weapons sales to Taiwan? They don’t consider that upsetting the Chinese but the president-elect talking to one who will soon be a political peer somehow sparks notions of war?

The Taiwan issue has been a topic that has irked me for some time, namely the notion that a foreign (enemy) power (China) is dictating who we can be allied with (Taiwan). It’s time American politicians do what they’re supposed to: look out for America’s interests, not foreign powers. You can have differences and not have hostilities or open conflict.

While I still hav emy doubts about Trump, if he’s going to truly approach international politics with a different perspective than the past half century I’m all for it. The status quo only keeps the elite and corrupt in power and the world under their thumb. Time to shake things up and maybe approach things unhindered by “tradition” or appeasement.

First off, I offer my congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump. As I did with Obama, I hope that Mr. Trump has a successful presidency that benefits the United States.

I don’t particularly like Mr. Trump, but then I rather disliked all the candidates of this election cycle. I did, however, pick Trump to win the election back in March 2016. I think he won largely due to those “long political shadows” I mentioned in that post (i.e. decades of declining middle class, Mrs. Clinton’s ongoing political and legal woes, associations with unpopular organizations, individuals, and legislation, Benghazi, etc., etc.) combined with the arrogance and dismissiveness of the Democratic Party, Clinton’s election machine, and the main stream media towards Middle America.

So naturally, the public (Middle America) decided to remind everyone that they were still a force to be reckoned with.

Don’t get me wrong. Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the far more important electoral college vote to Trump. Of course this has liberals gnashing their teeth and calling it unfair. Obviously, they failed their social studies classes or need a refresher. The electoral college system has worked (and continues) to work as it was intended: to prevent a small number of highly concentrated population centers from being able to dictate to the rest of the nation by simple majority rule style democracy.

Typically, the majority vote would coincide with the electoral counts, but as we have seen in the past occasionally that is not the case. And in those cases was ultimately a result of the arrogance of the losing party thinking they could ignore certain members of the citizenry in favor of others.

Hubris was Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic Party, and the so called political elite’s analysts and polls downfall this election cycle, and I admit I am smiling from ear to ear about their comeuppance. Don’t take that to mean I’m particularly giddy about Trump and the Republicans, but they played it smart this campaign cycle being notably less presumptive about victory when dealing with the American public.

I find myself amused at the desperation of the anti-Trump MSM and leftist pundits trying to blame the violence in Chicago on Trump. Funny, it looks like a bunch of left wing extremists initiating all the trouble. But as is too common now-a-days: don’t hold those responsible for violence accountable and place blame on the victim(s).

Then again, this is Chicago. Not exactly the most civilized folks when it comes to politics.

I don’t really like Trump but I despise any and all protesters whose violent activities lead to the infringement of thousands of other citizen’s freedom and speech and association in an attempt to silence those with a different point of view. Do these leftists really have no belief in their positions that they can’t allow others to think differently. Aren’t these same self named “liberals” the ones always demanding diversity in all things, including thought and belief? (Guess that means only if you agree with them.)

Remember people, your rights end at the next person. With your rights comes responsibility. Use both wisely.

I haven’t posted much partly because work, school, and life in general have been hectic. Partially because I honestly haven’t felt like blogging about what’s happening in the world, let alone the United States and its current socio-economic political insanity.

I started watching the Presidential candidate races giving up on the Democrats early on as it’s a given they’ve already sold out to Hillary Clinton without giving the American people a true choice of candidates.Sorry won’t be voting for that hypocrite just because she’s a woman. A similar argument was made with Obama’s campaign (e.g. you were racist if you voted against him because you disagree with his policies) just this time you’re a misogynist or a self-hating woman if you don’t support Hillary.

On the flip side the Republicans have too many candidates most of which are so right wing even the party base doesn’t like them or (in a few cases) too reasonable (read: moderate) for the party to vote for.

So into this fray walks Donald Trump and sadly it looks like he may well be the next Republican Presidential candidate. Why is popular? My guess would be that though he started off as a joke to me (and really I do still see him that way) he has struck a chord with Americans tired of watching the elected officials projecting weakness and indecision to the world and selfishness, greed, and obstructionism at home. Trump may be a arrogant ass but he’s perceived as confident, assertive and strong when compared to the other politicians in the race.

We’ll see how this election goes, but for now I’m betting on a D.Trump v H.Clinton presidential contest. Who do I think would win such a match up? Trump, but just barely and largely due to the long political shadows around Clinton.

Vice President Joe Biden said Republican-controlled states like Wisconsin were leading an “assault” on voting rights designed to “repress minority voting” through their passage of laws that require people to present a photo ID to vote.

Too bad Vice President Biden has no idea what he is talking about when he trots out the leftist myth that voter id laws are used to repress minorities. The leftist case against voter IDs is further undermined by the federal 2002 law, the Help America Vote Act, and numerous court cases upholding rather strict identification laws in states like Indiana. In other words, more leftist scare tactics to try to cow and control the Democratic base and stir up potential supporters/voters.

It’s rather insulting when political parties think they need to instill fear in order to get support, but sadly it is too often effective. But that is another discussion entirely.

I, my brother, and several others in my voting district were victims of voter fraud several years ago during off-year elections (i.e. midterm elections) in which others posed and voted in our stead. This of course was only discovered because when we showed up to vote, we were listed as having already voted with some scribbled signatures next to our name. We were allowed to vote on temporary ballots, but everyone knows that those never get counted unless a race is extremely tight, which is a rare event. Additionally, in later years my name showed up on petitions (that were dismissed) I did not sign.

So in effect, I was potentially, If not outright, denied my vote by someone else because no one bothered to confirm who the people voting were. This blatant voter fraud did not happen in later elections at that particular polling place as they simply demanded everyone show their state voter registration card (which everyone at the time got for free and I believe still do) or picture identification. That’s not to say there weren’t any other questionable voting practices, only that such flagrant violations were addressed.

Obviously as a result of my personal experience I am a firm believer in requiring verifiable identification in order to be allowed in elections of any sort in the United States. I believe most Americans agree with this position as well.

Do I think there is rampant voter fraud in the United States. No. Rather I think there is rampant corruption with numerous groups across the political spectrum trying to sway and steal elections in ways both obvious (intimidation, defamation/slander, judicial activism) and subtle (gerrymandering, ethno-centrist pandering, legislative maneuvering, propagandist or politically slanted “news”) to steal the voice of the legitimate voting public.

It is currently unknown who shot the plane down: the Russians, the Russian backed insurgents, or the Ukrainians. All have access to weapons capable of taking down the airliner.

While Ukraine has anti-aircraft weapons as well, but has no reason to be firing them at large planes since the rebels have no such aircraft at their disposal. Hence, I am more dismissive of the idea that the Ukrainian military shot down the plane, as Russia claims

Given recent activities in the area (namely the rebels shooting at and shooting down Ukrainian aircraft) I believe it was in fact the insurgents using Russian supplied equipment like the Buk missile system, which does have the capacity to reach the cruise altitude the Malaysian Airliner was said to be at. I also base this on the rebels own claims on a social networking site of shooting down an aircraft around the same time as MH-17 went down, post which later were deleted once it became clear a civilian airliner had been shot down.

So at this point, I blame the insurgent separatists and, ultimately, Vladimir Putin for instigating the military crisis in Ukraine through the invasion of Crimea and Ukraine, supplying rebels with weapons, and fomenting his pan-Slavic ethnocentric ultra-nationalism in the region.

What Should Be Done

Regardless of who is responsible for the attack, every effort (including military means if need be) should be made in ending the rebels assaults in Ukraine and bring those responsible for killing hundreds of innocent passengers on the plane to justice. I know that isn’t likely, given Putin is already spinning the blame to everyone else but his own disastrous policy in the region. If it turns out the Russian (or even Ukrainian) military is directly involved in attack, there needs to be some serious repercussions. Repercussions along the lines of a ban on all travel to and from the offender nation (or their sponsor), an world wide embargo on products, a rapid deployment of EU and NATO forces to all nations to form a buffer between the conflicting sides, stripping away of all international economic and sporting events, and so forth. In other words, no more weak willed verbal rebukes but tangible punishments that hurt those committing these acts.

What Will Be Done

Sadly, with our current president whose early thought this event was: “It looks like it may be a terrible tragedy”, I suspect nothing. I think Obama was channeling George W. there. “May be”? Seriously? Regardless of how the plane went down it is a tragedy.

Obama has shown himself to be spineless in the past in a whole manner of violence and conflicts erupting across the face of the planet so I expect little to nothing to be done.

I support the immigration protesters in Murrieta, CA. Despite what some ideologues and amnesty supporters would have you think, these people are not racists or against immigrants. I think these protesters represent what a majority of Americans want and feel: an end to illegal immigrants, an end to policies that support illegal aliens over U.S. citizens, an end to liberal (by this I mean weak) immigration policy and reform of immigration policy that rightly places the interests of the U.S. citizen over that of foreigners and entities (read: business, politicians, political parties, etc.) that exploit these immigrants. Additionally I believe many Americans want citizenship requirements changed to stop the use of anchor babies and illegal immigrant children as an exploitive justification to allow illegal immigrants to remain.

While the Obama administration has been more active in deporting illegal aliens, it has also been weak in others or outright manipulative in pushing an even more weakened immigration system by advocating amnesty and cynically using children of illegal aliens (whether the child is a citizen or not) to induce an emotional response from the public rather than a well thought out logical response that truly addresses the issues surrounding immigration. This is not aided any the main political parties in the United States (the Democrats and Republicans) holding the country hostage to their equally twisted political agendas that benefit no one but their own power and greed.

While most Americans can empathize with the illegal immigrants (especially the children recklessly endangered by their parents getting here) I think they also understand that, just like we cannot be policeman to the world, we cannot be caretaker of the world either. We, as a nation and as much as we may want to, simply don’t have the resources to do so and maintain our own nation, economy, and people.